It’s as common as getting braces in America. It’s blepharoplasty, or double eyelid surgery, a cosmetic surgery where the skin around the eye is reshaped to create a crease. The surgery aims to mimic the look of western eyes while downplaying the natural single eyelid Asian look.

In developed East Asian countries such as Korea and Taiwan, undergoing the knife for bigger eyes is the most common form of cometic surgery. Parents budget for it for their daughters the same way American parents budget for braces to correct their children’s teeth.

Some Asians are born with single eyelids and some have double eyelids. It’s all a luck of the genetic draw. Growing up in Taiwan, my parents’ friends would often comment on how lucky they are to have a daughter with double eyelids. Lucky indeed as drawing the long straw in the genetic lottery probably saved my parents a few thousand dollars in unnecessary surgery costs.

In East Asian countries, there’s a cultural obesssesion with looking western. The bigger your eyes are, the prettier you are deemed to be. It’s not just Asians in Asia that get this cosmetic procedure as Asians in America undergo the eye knife as well. I know a few people who had it done locally, mostly women, but Asian men as well.

It seems all races strive to look European as we live by the global standard of western beauty. Black women straighten their naturally curly hair and Asian women get surgery to make their eyes bigger or nose more prominent. The more Caucasian you look, the better looking you are considered to be. Even by your own people.

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enjoys sharing with readers her observations and impressions from around the community. As editor of herRochester.com, she will be blogging about the people she encounters and the events she attends which might be of interest to local women. Your ideas and feedback are encouraged (ameade@democratandchronicle.com.). Her career as a journalist spans more than 25 years, first with the Chicago Tribune, then as a freelancer, and since 1996 with the Democrat and Chronicle Media Group. She and her husband live in Livonia. They have two sons in their early 20s.

is the D&C's vice president for digital strategy and development. She is bookish (e-books only these days, unless they are first-edition classics). She plays tennis, drinks good wine and frequents coffee shops in the city, where she lives at Neighborhood of the Arts. She's close to receiving her Master's degree in Innovation Management at Rochester Institute of Technology.

has taken on a newly-created role of Assistant Multimedia Editor for Sponsored Content and Social Media at the Democrat and Chronicle. She works across departments as an editor and writer of sponsored content and social media. Cynthia has worked on a mix of top initiatives at the D&C, including the Words With Wegmans social game for the new East Avenue store and Fleet Feet Sports' Ton of Fun Summer Weight-Loss Challenge, done in partnership with HerRochester.com. Follow Cynthia on Twitter at @cynthiabenjamn

is the style and real estate writer at the Democrat and Chronicle Media Group. She's always on the lookout for a stylish deal to inform D&C readers, whether it's a too good to be true deal on a home or the latest sale at a local boutique. She's married to a Marine and lives in Brighton with an aspiring fashionista daughter and a Pomeranian named Princess.

works in public relations at a local non-profit organizations. She is married and she and her husband have three sons. When she left her job as a reporter at the Democrt and Chronicle to have more time with her family, Marketta agreed to write a column on religion and spirituality. That column is Simply Faithful. She also blogs at SimplyFaithful.com and she has a Facebook page called Simply Faithful, where among other things, she engages readers in discussions about books.

covers crime, courts and breaking news for the Democrat and Chronicle. Outside of work, she's a fitness nut. A former competitive swimmer, Victoria is a rower-turned-runner. She's completed four marathons and dozens of shorter races, but really just loves to run – alone or with her friends. Victoria loves great food, incredible wine and lives in a 190-ish-year-old farm house in Penfield with her husband. She also writes, with friends, for a healthy living and fitness blog www.scootadoot.com

refuses to leave the house without at least two cups of coffee, for fear of being pulled over for DWD (driving while decaffeinated). She is an eternal omnivore who has a deep love and respect for tofu, especially when it's prepared with pork. She has not skipped a meal since 1993.

The former professional house cleaner and nude art model (she posed in her birthday suit for senior citizen community art class, where the most frequently asked question was: "Are you cold, dear?") has been covering food, cooking and restaurants for the Democrat and Chronicle since 2000.

A firm believer that hunger is the best sauce, Miltner's favorite ways to get hungry including biking, hiking, swimming, snowshoeing, cross country skiing and reading cookbooks in bed.

One day she hopes to be the Imelda Marcos of vintage dishware.

Miltner lives in Geneva with her husband, Dennis Ferlito, a fourth-generation vegetable farmer. Needless to say, they eat a lot of vegetables.

became editor of community partnerships and niche content in November 2011, a position new to the Democrat and Chronicle. She is charged with increasing community engagement across all platforms, web and print. Sutter also has served as deputy editorial page editor, managing editor and general manager/custom content at the Democrat and Chronicle. She has worked as a reporter or editor for newspapers in Iowa, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina and Elmira, where she was executive editor of the Star-Gazette. She holds a master's degree in media management and a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.